Production Quantity Collection form Machines to PC

Hi all PLC Masters,
Though this question is different than PLC but it is related to automation filed and I have confident that I will get solution from this intelligent and knowledgeable forum.
I have a project to collect production quantity form 15 machines to PC for calculation of Overall Equipment Effectiveness calculation. I mean there is 15 N/O contacts and I want to measure how many times they changes form N/O to N/C. Especially I want these data in MS Excel for further calculation and reporting purpose.
Any one can suggest me economical method to do that.
Thanks in advance.

Inputs to AB micrologix 1000 and program 15 counters.
Install RSLinx on PC and collect information from PLC
Export to MS Excel spreadsheet

This is a similar to something that I need to do, do you guys know how to get from here (inside the micro-1000) to there (PC with excel). I know it can be done, but what connections do you make and how do you put the data on the com port of the PLC and how do you use the data by excel? I don't think the micro-1000 uses ascii commands and have no idea of where to start on the PC, maybe some data collection software?

Hi Micah. You can do it via a serial connection to your PC but you will need to have RSLinx (not the lite version) running. The cheapest version that will do the job is Linx single node. You then make a DDE topic of the data in a spreadsheet on your PC. The help files of RSLinx explains this quite well and it takes about 2 minutes max to set up. regards Alan Case

Hi riyajahamad. In my opinion there is not enough information to give you any advice. You did not specify what is the distance between machines. Are they controlled by PLCs or relay logic. If PLCs, what type of PLCs. If you need only couple of counters that counts contacts going ON and OFF it will be a good idea to buy separate PLC to collect these data and PC software that communicate with PLC and display data in Excel (example posted by NewfieDT). There are some other brands of PLCs that you can use. Maybe one of you machine has a PLC that you can use for this purpose. In my case, I had to collect different type of information from about 400 machines. I used SCADA software for this purpose.

Thanks a lot for reply,
My requirement is economical i.e. plc software which can give support to MS Excel. Allen Bardly is expensive in India. Is it posible by using Siemens S7 200 and Soft plc software which I heard some time back. In my project for counting there is no plc in machine side. I am getting N/O contanct for counting purpose. Distance between machines is all machine are in 30 sq, meter area.

DDE

I think u can read data within Excel by using DDE. I think thats your best bet! As far as using S7..i guess any plcs with counters will suffice.

Thanks Aswin for your support, can you give more information about
how read data within Excel by using DDE.

Well I am sure there are many here who have the path to read data to Excel at the back of their heads. It s been a while since i worked with DDE. I think u should be able to find it at the microsoft website..or google would be ur best bet. but i am sure i have seen the same at the Microsoft website.

All you need to do is type the path name in Excel..where we usually type in the formulae..and u should be able to read data with ease!

Aswin can you give some example for the above comments, I am also intereseted to do the exact as Riyazahmad want.
Thanks Riyazahmad for post.